1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a forging machine, more particularly to a forging machine having rollers between a support and a slide body of a male die assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fasteners, such as screws and nuts, are generally manufactured by feeding a wire material into a forging machine. In the forging machine, the wire material is straightened and cut into workpieces that are conveyed to a female die unit, and a male die unit is forced to move to the female die unit to perform a series of forging operations so as to forge the workpieces.
Referring to FIG. 1, a forging machine 1 disclosed in Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 535662 includes a support 11 having a receiving space 111, two rolling devices 12 disposed respectively at left and right sides of the receiving space 111, and a male die assembly 13 installed slidably in the receiving space 111. Each rolling device 12 includes a plurality of rollers 121 in contact with the male die assembly 13 so that the male die assembly 13 can slide smoothly via the rollers 121, and generation of frictional heat during the sliding of the male die assembly 13 can be avoided.
As the forging machine 1 is designed to produce a large number of products within 1 min, the male die assembly 13 has to operate at a high speed. However, since the rolling devices 12 are provided only at the front of the two sides of the support 11 and at the front of the male die assembly 13, during the sliding motion of the male die assembly 13, the rolling movements occur only at the front thereof, and the rear side of the male die assembly 13 is suspended unsupportedly in the receiving space 111. Furthermore, because the length of the male die assembly 13 from a location where it contacts the rollers 121 to its rear end is twice the length from that location to its front end which is assembled with a plurality of punching heads (not shown), in case the male die assembly 13 is tilted slightly, its rear end will vibrate, resulting in positional deviation and reduced stability of the punching heads. As a result, when the male die assembly 13 moves forward to effect forging, particularly, to press the front end punching heads against a female die assembly 14, the male die assembly 13 will strike obliquely the female die assembly 14, thereby adversely affecting the accuracy of the forging operation and the quality of products. Therefore, further improvement relating to the sliding of a male die assembly is desirable.